DNA number-crunchers use homegrown software

Today, multiple startups — including DNAnexus and Spiral Genetics — are taking the genomics world beyond Hadoop [a number-crunching tool originally built for software engineers] and onto a new breed of web service designed to analyze genome data even more efficiently. These services still process information using the power of thousands of servers, but they’re specifically built for the sort of problems geneticists are looking to solve — and according to the companies, they don’t require the software know-how you need to operate your own cluster of Hadoop servers.